“Sonnet 64” by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599):
Coming to kisse her lyps, (such grace I found)
Me seemd I smelt a gardin of sweet flowres:
that dainty odours from them threw around
for damzels fit to decke their lovers bowres.
Her lips did smell lyke unto Gillyflowers,
her ruddy cheeks lyke unto Roses red:
her snowy browes lyke budded Bellamoures,
her lovely eyes lyke Pincks but newly spred,
Her goodly bosome lyke a Strawberry bed,
her neck lyke to a bounch of Cullambynes:
her brest lyke lillyes, ere theyr leaves be shed,
her nipples lyke young blossomd Jessemynes,
Such fragrant flowers doe give most odorous smell,
But her sweet odour did them all excel.
Spenser poems from over the weekend here and here.
(From Amoretti, published in London in 1595 by William Ponsonby. Lady in a Garden, circa 1912, by Frederick Carl Frieseke via Wikimedia Commons)
The Dish 
